Jim Fotheringham
There have been many local lads to have broken into the big time but not many will be aware of who was the first. Back in the 1950s, former Corby Boys School player Jim Fotheringham was making a name for himself at centre half playing for Arsenal. He did in fact play for Arsenal against Manchester United the Saturday before United's ill fated trip to Yugoslavia and the Munich air crash. In 1955 Jim was featured in the July edition of the Charles Buchan Football Monthly. Here is his story;
'My Arsenal pals who have more soccer service in years than I have in months have often told me that the game a player never forgets is his first league match. I fully endorse that now, especially as in my case the first league problem that I had as a centre half, I had to deal with a fellow in a number 9 shirt named Nat Lofthouse. My second senior outing was against a Russian side in a match that had been lifted from the sports page to the front page - with the knowledge that millions were looking on through TV.'
It all added up to quite an opening for a teenage Scot. 'That was some week for me, last November. It began with a message to report to Mr. Whittaker's office on the Wednesday before our game with Bolton at Burnden Park. The boss told me I would be playing, also that I was being given early notice to get used to the idea and so stave off last minute nerves. But only when he wished me luck did the news really sink in. Nervous? I took it all very calmly - on Wednesday. On Thursday, thinking about the coming ordeal, I hardly ate anything! But by Saturday I felt quite composed. Nat Lofthouse was a great sport and I thoroughly enjoyed our first meeting. We got a much needed point in a 2-2 draw. Nat didn't score and it was this as much as anything that brought me to the end of the match very much relieved. I don't claim to be without nerves and I suppose the thoughts of playing against Spartak three days later should have been enough to worry anybody. But I kidded myself into thinking that it was just another game, despite the trimmings that were being woven around it. Honestly, I couldn't get over excited about the match. I suppose that is why I went out to have what I feel is my best game so far.
We Arsenal players tried all we knew to wipe out the memory of that 5-0 beating by Moscow Dynamo a month earlier. Maybe if we had got that second half penalty for a foul on Arthur Milton our right winger, we would have made it a draw. But though we went don 2-1 we all knew that we had done something to atone partially at least, for the Moscow beating.
For Arsenal was a grand team that night. In all modesty we can claim to have blown up the theories that Spartak were world beaters - Wolves later confirmed the point. That first week of mine is, naturally, the high spot in a modest career that has yet to stretch to a full season. But there was another week when it seemed that things might work out in rather hectic fashion for me. Looking back now I am rather frightened at the thought that my first big game might have been at Wembley in the Cup Final. Here are the facts; Three years ago Arsenal, due to meet Newcastle at Wembley, had the unluckiest bunch of injuries a club could have. Jimmy Logie and Doug Lishman were hospital cases and Ray Daniel our centre half, had a broken wrist in plaster and was very doubtful. I was reserve centre half, but right half Arthur Shaw-with much more experience- was given a game at centre half I case he had to take Ray's place. And Arthur also broke an arm. I had read in the newspapers that Arsenal might have to call on a young unknown in the Final. His name was Jim Fotheringham, and those reports made me very nervous. I doubt if I was seriously considered at the time, but Arthur’s injury made the situation even more desperate. Perhaps I solved it. That Saturday before the Cup Final I fell against our goalpost in trying to head away a corner. I caught the bottom of my spine and my legs became paralysed. They had to carry me off and I spent the next week in hospital.
But for my football I would have followed father into his trade as an engineer. My father came to Corby, Northants - 'Little Scotland' they call it, when I was eighteen months old. Many people are surprised at my Scottish accent when I tell them I have been in England so long - but Corby and thousands of exiled Scots explains that. Like most kids it was Rangers for me in the early days - even at some 400 miles range. Too busy playing; I saw little senior football as a youngster. But in Scotland on holidays I usually managed to see a game or two there, and big Frank Brennan was my favourite. He was then playing for Airdrie.
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| Big Jim Boys Club Days |
My father, to my surprise, would not hear of trials at either Sunderland or Leicester for me. Much later I found out that he had his eyes and his hopes on a London club for me. An Arsenal scout was the first to enter our sitting room, and, in 1949, I was off to Highbury.
So keen was I, to make good that I spent a fortnight’s holiday there in order to be really fit for my test. I was determined not to let my father or myself down. My first game was against Leyton Orient in the London Mid-Week League. I was then 16. Now, at 6ft 3", they tell me I’m the tallest player in the game. Well, it's handy, to say the least, when the ball is in the air. I have had the best coaching from great players and great colleagues like Alf Field and Leslie Compton - and Tommy Lawton has been long suffering and a model of patience in teaching me how best to head a ball. And Arsenal? Even to a football rookie like me it is so obviously the best club in the world!'
Jim Fotheringham was selected for the Scotland World Cup squad in 1958 and later signed for Hearts for £12,000. Returning south he joined Northampton Town and broke his leg which sadly, was the end of his career. Jim spent three months coaching the Libyan national side in 1961 for the Arab Olympic Games. Turning his back of football, Jim took a job in the steelworks and died in Corby at the age of 44 in 1977.
